St. Teresa of Avila would never have snapped her fingers.
Help Aleteia continue its mission by making a tax-deductible donation. In this way, Aleteia’s future will be yours as well.
*Your donation is tax deductible!
Fear not. There are no spoilers in this article!
The Infinity Gauntlet has been shown to be the most powerful object in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if not the comics world as well. All of Marvel’s future films are bound to be touched by its influence and the events of the last two movies. What many of the fans who pack the theaters may not know, however, is that the real-life inspiration for the fictional glove of power appears to be a Catholic one.
The Infinity Gauntlet was designed to hold all six of the Infinity Stones, each of which is imbued with a different aspect of creation. When the Gauntlet is equipped with the full set, the wearer possesses all the powers of creation, or at least the abilities of a gamer with all the cheat codes turned on.
In Avengers: Infinity War, audiences watched as the intergalactic villain, Thanos, placed all six of the stones in their proper settings and become the scourge of all life in the galaxy … or at least half of all life. The Gauntlet is not inherently evil; in fact, one of the stones, while separated from the Gauntlet, gave life to Vision, one of the noblest heroes in the MCU, who was so pure of heart that he was able to lift Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor.
When it comes to utilizing the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, intention matters. Now, thanks to a revelation by Curiosmos, we’re learning that this intention may be a commentary on religion, as a striking similarity has been noticed between the Infinity Gauntlet and the reliquary containing the incorrupt hand of the 16th-century Spanish mystic St. Teresa of Avila.
Did you know that the gauntlet of Thanos is so powerful because it is a replica of the relic of the hand of St. Teresa de Jesus?
Good luck unseeing that now.
(Source: Déjale ir, Católico) pic.twitter.com/6BCFUCroqv
— 𝓕𝓻. 𝓓𝓲𝓼𝓶𝓪𝓼, 𝓞𝓟 (@dismasop) April 27, 2019
The similarities are eerie in all respects. The color on the gilded silver reliquary is exactly like that of the Infinity Gauntlet, and the rings on the reliquary are even the same colors as the stones on the Gauntlet, although the colors are in a different order. While Marvel has not claimed a connection between the two, it seems likely that someone in Marvel’s design department saw the relic and filed that information away for later use.
According to historical records, St. Teresa of Avila’s body was exhumed nine months after her death, when it was first observed that her body did not decay. Even though the passage of time had rotted her clothing, her remains were incorrupt, just as they had been when she died.
Relics from the Spanish saint were distributed for veneration, but her hand was stolen in 1936 by Francisco Franco, the Spanish military dictator. Franco reportedly took the relic with him everywhere he went and even slept with it on his nightstand.
The relic was recovered by nuns after Franco’s death in 1975. From there, the relic traveled to several convents until it found a permanent resting place in the Iglesia de la Merced, in the city of Ronda. It is now housed in a safe, locked room, set behind gilded silver and encrusted with jewels.
While it is still unconfirmed by Marvel that this relic was the influence of the most powerful object in the MCU, from a visual comparison, it seems likely that the Infinity Gauntlet, which harnesses the power of creation, has its roots in Catholicism.
